PRIMER: Iowa State at Illinois Tournament

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State remains on the road traveling to Champaign, Ill. following a win in the Iowa Corn Cy- Hawk Series. ISU wraps non-conference meeting Eastern Illinois Friday and host Illinois Saturday.

Friday, Sept. 19, 6 p.m., vs. Eastern Illinois

Live Stats | B1G+ | Media Center | Notes

B1G+: PxP Justin St. Louis, Analyst Drew Arnopolin

Saturday, Sept. 20, 5:30 p.m., at Illinois

Live Stats | Media Center | Notes

Big Ten Network: PxP Jack Kizer, Analyst Audrey Flaugh

By the Numbers

1 – Morgan Brandt leads all active Big 12 players with 3,031 career assists. The total ranks fourth in program history.

3 – Christy Johnson-Lynch ranks T-No. 3 all time in Big 12 history with 207 league victories.

3 – Iowa State currently ranks top 10 nationally in three categories: kills (No. 2, 14.97/set), assists (No. 3, 13.90/set) and hitting percentage (No. 8, 0.314).

4 – Iowa State has now beaten Iowa in four-straight meetings.

5 – Iowa State hit at .333 or better in the first five matches of the season. The last time ISU had a stretch of five-straight .300 matches happened in in 1992.

The 2025 Cyclones

Iowa State took the win at Iowa, with Alea Goolsby leading ISU with 17 kills. The freshman had her first double-double with 11 digs, also having three blocks and an ace. Rachel Van Gorp had her second-straight 20-dig match with 21, also serving a season-high four aces. Morgan Brandt hit a big milestone in the match, totaling her 3,000th career assist to become just the fourth in Iowa State history to do so.

The Cyclones went undefeated in the Cyclone Invite with wins over SLU and Omaha. Goolsby had a 20-kill performance through the four-set win vs. Omaha, hitting 24 at an efficient .278. Also against Omaha, Maya Duckworth had career kill No. 900, and following Iowa now stands 80 kills from hitting the milestone of 1,000.

Iowa State opened the season at 5-0 without losing a set before falling at UNI, 1-3. ISU was one of the three final teams nationally to begin with 15 set wins. It marked the first time in program history the Cyclones opened a season with a 15-0 set record.

ISU hit over .400 in three-straight matches (vs. Ohio, CMU, MKE), marking the first time the Cyclones have done so in program history. Iowa State had two top 10 all-time single-match hitting percentages in one day, first against CMU hitting at 0.462 (No. 7 ISU) before hitting at .457 (No. 9 ISU) at Milwaukee.

The Opponents

Eastern Illinois also played at the Bobcat Invite in Ohio, winning in five sets vs. Bucknell and in a sweep over Ohio. EIU's two losses came in four sets at Indiana State and vs. Montana. The Panthers have shown their defense ranking sixth nationally with 17.26 digs per set, while libero Ariadna Pereles ranks 16th in the nation averaging 4.97 digs per set. EIU is led by Ryan Millar in his first year, a U.S. Olympic gold medalist. Millar spent 15 years on the Men's National Team and played in three Olympic Games (Sydney, Athens, Bejing).

Iowa State will meet Illinois for the eighth time in series history, and looks for the first win over the Fighting Illini since 2012. The Cyclones return to Champaign for the first time since 2014, where ISU fell in the NCAA Tournament Second Round as No. 10 Illinois won in three. Saturday marks Illinois' home opener. This season Illinois took a set at No. 3 Louisville and against Miami, who received votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The fighting Illini are hitting at 0.267 on the season, led by Ashlyn Philpot with an efficiency of 0.421.

Next Up

Iowa State opens conference next week traveling to Utah for a pair of ranked matchups. ISU first meets No. 20 Utah on Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. CT before visiting No. 16 BYU Sept. 27 at 1:00 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Morgan Brandt

Maya Duckworth

Alea Goolsby

Rachel Van Gorp

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics